FrühlingsOPFER
Igor Strawinsky • Le Sacre du printemps

IGOR STRAVINSKY • Les Noces (The Wedding)featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1923) by Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972) with stage sets by Natalia Gontcharova (1881-1962)

IGOR STRAVINSKY • Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1913) by Vaslav Nijinsky (1889/90-1950) with stage sets by Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947)

IGOR STRAVINSKY • L'Oiseau de feu (The Firebird)featuring the choreography of the world premiere (1910) by Michel Fokin (1880-1942) with sets and costumes based on designs by M. Fokin, A. Golovin and L. Bakst

A scenic performance of Sacre on its 100th birthday! – Even today, a confrontation with the folk-like freshness and beauty of the Ballets Russes is breathtaking, especially when performed by the Mariinsky Ballet, one of the cradles of classic ballet culture and successful all over the world for its championship of these Gesamtkunstwerke, encompassing trailblazing music, dance and painting.

One of the rare encounters with Vaslav Nijinsky’s original choreography for Le Sacre du printemps is especially touching in the archaic sets and costumes by Nicholas Roerich dominated by Fauvist colour combinations, which have been reconstructed by ballet historians Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer in painstaking detective work. We may no longer find it shocking when ballerinas drag their feet instead of balancing weightlessly on pointe, but the pull of the stylised round dances, the haunting beauty of individual scenes and the amazement at Nijinsky’s choreographic idiom, which has not lost any of its contemporary feel, continue to make unforgettable impressions.

While the gods of spring receive the sacrifice of a young girl in Le Sacre du printemps, a traditional Russian peasant wedding is the subject of Les Noces. However, the rhythmical, repetitive music, the formal lamenting chants and the strictness of the choreography are no less suggestive of a ritual sacrifice.